Darmok

Listeners, waiting, their ears unfurled. The Enterprise makes rendezvous with a race known as the Children of Tama. No one has understood them for 100-years and it looks like the Tamarian captain wants to fight. But with whom and against what? And what will fighting solve anyway? Find out when we put Darmok in the Mission Log. Many thanks, @cmdrr:disqus. And our computer says “thanks” back to your phone 😉 Dathon knows there is a dangerous animal on El-Adral IV. I don’t think he would kidnap Picard and send them both down to a planet where they would have weeks to learn how to live together before they would succumb to starvation. No, Dathon needed a deadly threat and he needed one right now, that would affect Picard and Dathon shortly after they transported to the surface. Imagine, on Earth, you are a grizzly bear, perhaps a sow with a couple of cubs. You are minding your own business in the Montana wilderness, hundreds of miles away from people and civilization. All of a sudden, two people with weapons show up in your territory. The bear doesn’t know who these people are, or what their intentions are. Her instinct is to protect her cubs and herself from harm. So, she watches. The two intruders don’t leave her territory, but instead set up a campsite. At this point, and throughout the episode, we’re given no indication that the animal Picard and Dathon face is any different from something like a grizzly bear, with similar instincts. It’s not evil or sadistic, or wishes to do them harm, like Armus. It’s just an animal that is native to El-Adral IV. Keep in mind that there isn’t any interaction between Dathon/Picard and the animal on El-Adrel IV until the next morning, when Picard found Dathon gone. Dathon returns a few minutes later, breathless, urging Picard to help him defend themselves against this animal. What did he do during this time? Did he go seek out the animal, who was content to watch them and leave them alone? Did Dathon attack the animal first, or taunt it? Keep in mind that Dathon’s plan was for himself and Picard to have to work together to protect themselves from this animal. His plan wasn’t going to work until the animal became threatening to them, and the animal wasn’t a threat until Dathon apparently went to find and perhaps confront it. Let’s throw in the variable that Captain Dathon’s ship put up some kind of “invisible fence” to keep the animal from leaving. After all, that was what Dathon’s plan was all along – to have him and Picard face a deadly threat to force them to understand each other and work together. If the animal could simply take her cubs and hightail it out of there, then Dathon’s plan wouldn’t work. So, not only do we have the possibility that the animal is worried about her safety and the safety of her cubs, but now when she tries to leave, she can’t. That would make her even more desperate to protect herself and her cubs. The premise of the episode is wonderful – to have a common obstacle which forces two people who can’t communicate into doing so. I’m just concerned that they did this at the expense of a clueless, otherwise nonthreatening animal who is minding its own business, who only becomes dangerous when its territory, safety, and perhaps the safety of its offspring is threatened. The Children of Tama might have had a Predator like mentality. The hunt/fight being a spiritual bonding experience that can bring people together? When you think about it, they really should have been open to a sit down at a desk, w visual aids, holodeck etc…to get their point across, but I guess we have to believe the Children of Tama have such a radically different perspective that it wasn’t feasible…. Very good questions @disqus cMCcMa8oW1:disqus. There is an ethical situation here that Picard was never given the luxury to face. Perhaps this is a common thing for Tamarians (not that it makes it right), and perhaps the longer they are exposed to the Federation’s values it might not be a “thing”